Rampage season getting down to brass tacks

The Rampage may be in trouble. Everyone I spoke with this weekend isn’t ready to panic, but the games are getting fewer and all their opponents seem to be hot while the Rampage are missing on all cylinders.

The Rampage play the next four at home . . . hit the road during the Final Four weekend for four more and return for a pair against the Quad City Flames to close out the regular season. All games are against West Division foes.

The next six will be against Milwaukee, Peoria, and Rockford. The Admirals, who have lost two straight after winning seven in a row, are just a point behind the Rampage for fourth place. The Rampage fell to fourth after Houston’s Sunday win here and a shootout win over Peoria on Tuesday. Peoria crept to within three points of the Rampage with a 2-0-0-1 weekend, while San Antonio has lost four straight and six of seven. Rockford with 86 points, is a distant second to Chicago, but the Hogs have played one more game than everyone else.

The Rampage need to wake up very quickly with two games against Peoria this week and then Wednesday and Friday next week against Milwaukee at home. Tough games at crunch time, but only the top five teams will go forth into the playoffs and it would be a shame if the Rampage blew their first post season trip in five years late in the season.

The Rampage catch a schedule break with the Rivermen. Along with playing Tuesday in Houston, the Rivermen play the Rampage here Thursday, bus to Houston and play the Aeros again Friday night and then Peoria comes back here to play San Antonio on Saturday night… brutal.

Speaking of the Aeros, they begin an eight-game road trip after their Friday night affair with Peoria. They open in Chicago on Saturday night and will close the season with two home games with the Admirals.

Rockford has three games left with the Wolves, who may put the final three weeks on cruise control since they’ve all but wrapped up the division. The Admirals, meanwhile, will play either Houston or San Antonio their final eight games of the season.

THOUGHTS ABOUT THE WOLVES

Don’t know about you folks, but I really don’t like the Chicago Wolves.

They are the most arrogant team in hockey. I think they think they should be in the NHL and not the Blackhawks. It’s not like there is an arrogance meter anywhere in hockey. But common’ if there were, the Wolves would be in a league all their own.

Four years ago, they scored a goal that to this day has never been scored at the AT&T Center. Replays showed the referee was completely inept on the call, giving the goal to the Wolves. Since the off-ice officials had more sense than the guys on the ice, they called it an “unassisted” goal. The Wolves, who knew the puck never crossed the goal line, came over and demanded assists on the play. That’s arrogance.

The Wolves are the only AHL team that telecasts every game.

The Wolves are so arrogant, they actually change pointmen on power plays while in the attack zone! The forwards just control the puck down low until the blue liners are comfortably in position to score their next goal.

Some of my favorite moments in covering local hockey teams occurred while we were in Chicago however.

During one of the wonderful IHL schedule blips, we were in Chicago waiting to play the Wolves. They were hosting Long Beach on Friday, the Dragons on Saturday, so Brian Shantz and I went to the Ice Dogs game. We heard on the PA that Fort Wayne was losing 4-0 after the first period in John Tochetti’s first game as an IHL head coach. Shantzy and I just stared at each other and both of us said almost in stereo, “The Komets will win that game!” and they did! We just knew Torch wasn’t going to stand for that kind of effort.

That was the trip where Shantz, myself and assistant coach Todd Gordon were the IHL Rookie dinner “honorees,” where the team goes nuts on steaks and drinks and hands over the bill to the rooks. I saw Brian at an ATM emptying the bank account in the hotel lobby. So I asked him what was up? He let me in on the tradition.

Since I was getting paid quite a bit less than the players (and really didn’t need to waste time getting money out of an ATM since there wasn‘t any in there) I told Jeff Brubaker the coach, that I wasn’t going to be honored that night. He told me not to sweat it. But all I ate was a house salad with water, hoping to keep expenses down, while the boys enjoyed t-bones, filet mignon and the best wine in Chicago.

Later, Bru put the meal $3400, on the team credit card, a sum Chicago owner and former Dragons owner Don Levin is still probably having trouble digesting. But Brian Glynn, a defenseman who played 10 years in the NHL and was making my annual salary in two weeks of the season, found out about my plight and pulled me aside and told me in his wine-flavored whisper, “Tony, no father of seven is ever paying for a meal on the road with me around.” Nice of Brian to add five inches to my waistline that year.

The Dragons were in again later that season for a Fri/Sun series. What to do on Saturday night? I checked with the Blackhawks PR guy and he set me up with press room credentials and Dragons goalie, Bruce Racine and I went to the game against Montreal. It was super! I got to meet the Habs Yvan Cournoyer and Blackhawks great Stan Makita, while Racer spent the night with former Montreal goalie, Phil Myre. Sad thing was the Wolves outdrew the Blackhawks the next night against the Dragons.

But my favorite moment came in the 1996-97 playoffs, Dragons vs. Wolves . . . Game 4 in the Allstate Arena . . . Gregori Panteleyev scored in overtime, beating current Wolves assistant coach Wendell “I Lift the Cage off It’s Pins All the Time When Traffic Gets Heavy Around Me and No One Ever Calls Me On It” Young. I was the only person yelling in the building as the Wolves were dispatched.